Monday, July 7, 2014

Weekend report June 30 - July 6

TUESDAY
Pete and Rick drove to Franconia and delivered PM and the golf cart, and drove back home. Then they went back to Franconia by air with the Blanik in tow, and returned to Post Mills by air.

WEDNESDAY
Pete and Rick took the day off.

THURSDAY
Evan drove from home to Franconia and dropped off his car and trailer. Andy flew to Franconia in the Champ, picked up Evan, and brought him back to Post Mills. Evan then flew the towplane back to Franconia, towing nothing. Karl towed the fuel trailer from Post Mills to Franconia. Pete drove his truck back to Franconia, towing nothing, and checked in at the establishment across the street from the airfield. This completed the preparation phase. Rick took another day off.

The flying phase

FRIDAY, the Fourth of July
The first day of our encampment was cold and fairly miserable. Henry took a couple of practice flights, which involved towing up to the ceiling of 1500 feet AGL and gliding back down. Andy towed. The Franconia towplane was having some engine troubles, and their club asked ours to provide some tows. This is a Fourth of July tradition.

SATURDAY
Saturday started out overcast, cool, and quite windy. We initially thought it would be a loser of a day. Fortunately, the wind was on the ridge, and everyone who wanted to get in the air did so, with the exception of Henry, who spent the day helping everyone else fly.

The sun broke out in the middle of the afternoon, and several pilots made it into the wave. Tim (AT), Skip (JS), Dan, (EA), and Paul (S1) posted good flights, but the best one was by Andy Lawrence (PM), who reached 13000 feet. The Blanik flew several times, with Bill instructing. Rick and Dakai made it to 8100 feet on the last flight of the day, and landed at 7pm.

In all, we had 21 flights on Saturday (including a few tows for FSA, whose towplane engine was still not yielding to the ministrations of their mechanic). Andy did all the tows, allowing the other three PMSC towpilots time to enjoy their day.

Thanks to Judy's last-minute organizing, we had a traditional cookout in the back yard of the Kinsman Lodge, where a few of us were staying and a few more were camping out. A lot of people contributed, and a few probably still owe Judy a small amount for groceries. The evening ended with some low quality fireworks and some high quality stargazing.

SUNDAY
Sunday was a beautiful day from end to end. Tim (AT) took off first and was one of the last to land. He went up north and made it up to 13000 feet. Evan (T8) and Dan (EA) made it to similar heights. Moshe (RU) spent several hours practicing low saves in the vicinity of the airport, and Skip (JS), Dennis (DC), Pete (3J), and Andy Lawrence (PM) chased each other back and forth on the ridge. The Franconia club again benefited from our visiting towplane, as the consensus on the status of their engine converged on "ruined." For the third day in a row, Andy did all the tows, for a total of 46 for the weekend.

Greg organized the retrieval of all the equipment. Thanks to the hard work of Pete, Karl, Angelica, Annie, Andy Lawrence, and Andy Lumley, everything got packed up and brought back home by the end of the day.